His best year in the Majors was 1942, when he played nearly a full season and batted .300 as a Cubs outfielder during the first of the World War II years, when the player ranks were thinned by the draft. Altogether, as a big-leaguer he batted .282 with 305 hits, with 45 doubles, ten triples and 15 home runs.

Because of his eccentric personality, the media dubbed him "The Mad Russian," after a popular radio character of the same name played by Bert Gordon. According to Warren Brown's history of the Cubs (written after the 1945 season, when Novikoff had been recently active with the team), Novikoff was afraid to approach the ivy[1] on the Wrigley Field walls, fearing that it was poison ivy, thus diminishing his usefulness as an outfielder at the time, however Cubs trainer Bob Lewis took Novikoff to the vines one day and rubbed them all over his body and chewed some up proving they were safe. Novikoff smiled politely afterwards and asked if they were ok for smoking. (Gold & Ahrens 22)